


Picture Perfect

by musiquetta



Series: Thinkfast Week [3]
Category: Young Avengers
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 20:58:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2164947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musiquetta/pseuds/musiquetta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy takes a lot of pictures. This story is about some of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Picture Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> We all agree that Tommy would definitely use his powers for evil and take embarrassing pictures, don't we?

David wakes up to the tell-tale sound of the shutter of Tommy's phone. He groans. This is eerily _déjà-vu_.

 

“Please tell me you didn't draw anything on my face this time.” he mumbles into the armrest of his couch, reluctantly opening his eyes to see Tommy beam at him.

 

“Nah, that was only funny the first seventeen times.” Tommy says, looking down at his phone, no doubt marveling at his latest snapshot. The movie end credits are rolling over his TV and David vaguely recalls dozing off during some showdown of the trashy western Tommy had insisted on.

 

“You wanna see it?” Tommy is wiggling his phone around and David gives him a dirty look.

 

“Please, no.” He'd seen enough of Tommy's photos to have suffered a serious blow to his self-confidence and also to realize that photography was not one of Tommy's talents.

 

It's just – the trouble with a speedster with a camera phone is that nothing happens too quickly to be caught on camera. All those little moments where you go 'boy am I glad no one saw that'?

 

Tommy saw it. Tommy took a photo. From multiple angles, most likely.

 

That's how the most illustrious collection of photos ends up on Tommy's phone, including that one time America blushed when Kate grabbed her hand to drag her off somewhere. That photo had since been deleted in what Tommy called a 'washing machine incident'. David guesses it was America threatening to throw a washing machine at him unless he deletes it.

 

“So, you coming to the club with me?” Tommy asks, jumping up from the couch, stretching his back. David groans again, a particular dread settling in his stomach at the thought of a night about town with Tommy.

 

“Last time I ended up halfway on a train ride to Toronto, with a bunch of Canadian circus artists teaching me how to throw knives.” he says, exasperated. Tommy just continues to look at him expectantly.

 

“On a _train_ to Toronto. On a weekday.”

 

“What's your point here?” Tommy asks, honestly asks and David rolls his eyes.

 

“I'm not coming.” he states, grabbing their dishes from the table, moving them to the kitchen. Tommy hovers in the door frame behind him and David mentally draws up the list of reasons why he absolutely can't go on another of Tommy's nightly adventures with him, in a way that won't make Tommy stay away sulking.

 

And it really isn't that hard to come up with the reasons, because, again, Toronto, week day, _knives_.

 

David turns, the reasoning all laid out and ready to be reasoned but just as he is about to start Tommy's face scrunches up in that particular way David never gets behind – there's confusion there, though it's beyond David why Tommy would be confused right now, but also anger, though more the defensive kind, he thinks – and he's usually good with emotions, he really is, but that one puzzles him to no end and is also usually followed by one especially Tommy-esque maneuver.

 

“See ya around.” Tommy says and is gone in a blink.

 

Sometimes David hates being right.

 

**

 

Tommy takes off a few days after that and for longer than ever before. He doesn't even text. Not that they text regularly, they work in the same office and see each other pretty much every day, texting is pretty pointless.

 

Which usually doesn't stop Tommy from texting David the occasional pun or sending him pictures of himself atop various tourist attractions as if he couldn't wait to let David know.

 

This time it's silence.

 

Every time a shadow passes his office door, he stupidly looks up, expecting Tommy to stand there, cup of coffee in his hand and a crazy story on his lips, only to be disappointed. A week in he stops going to 'their' noodle place because what's the point if you're just gonna sit there on your own and have the waitress assume you were dumped by 'that handsome guy with the weird hair he's usually with'.

 

David doesn't correct her.

 

David is not that much in denial. It only takes him about ten days to admit that he misses Tommy. Only three more to admit he doesn't miss him like a friend but more like a limb or something equally melodramatic.

 

He awkwardly meets Billy and Teddy a few times. Awkwardly not because of the Incident, as David mentally refers to it – they had left that behind – but awkward because David spends the entire time thinking about a way to casually ask if they knew where Tommy had gone.

 

And then halfway through he realizes he's acting so awkward, if he brings up Tommy now, Billy and Teddy will know Tommy's the reason David's acting so awkward, and will question him about what the hell is going on and, frankly, David has no idea what is going on but he knows what those two would assume and while they might be right he's not ready for that.

 

About ten days into the silence, Kate posts a new picture on Instagram. David takes one look and knows that Tommy took it, though. The thumb covering the corner and the slight blur give it away immediately.

 

It's of both of them lying on the beach, white sand brightening the picture to a point where it almost hurts to look, with a pile of fur – David dimly recalls Kate having a dog now, so it's probably a dog – wiggling between them.

 

There's another thing David wanted to talk about with Tommy, about whether or not they were a thing since New Year's. He's happy for Tommy if they are, because friends don't want their friends to not be in a happy relationship with a girl as awesome as Kate.

 

Except he kinda isn't. Happy, that is.

 

The next day Tommy bursts into his office like nothing happened and says they should totally have noodles tonight.

 

He's gone before David can say anything about revelations had in the past two weeks and isn't that a summary of their whole friendship.

  
**

 

David sees a familiar head of white hair as he steps onto the roof of the apartment building of Billy's parents. Tommy sits on the wall circling the edge, looking over his shoulder to see who had come up after him. For a moment David is sure Tommy will bolt like he did a couple of minutes before when he and his kind-of-brother worked themselves into a screaming match before any of them could calm the twins down. But then Tommy turns around again, looking down into his lap.

 

That's a success in David's books. He carefully approaches.

 

“How the hell did you find me?” Tommy asks. “By now I could have been all the way across the world.” David shrugs before he can stop himself – it's not like Tommy can see him.

 

“I know you _could_ be.” David says as he walks up to him. “And I know you have been, before. Often enough that no one bothers to check anymore.” He stops right behind Tommy, unsure of whether to come any closer. What he wants is to sit down next to Tommy, rub his back and tell him that Billy didn't mean half the things he said, just like Tommy didn't mean the things he shouted back.

 

“But I also know that running halfway across the world must be tiring.” David continues. “And if no one checks, the roof is just as good, isn't it?” he concludes and Tommy's shoulders heave. David thinks it's a chuckle.

 

“Smartest guy in the room.” he says. “And now you've gone and blown my system to hell. Next time I gotta run up some cold snowy mountain in the swiss alps again and freeze my butt off.” There's no sting to those words, just quiet resignation. David feels irrationally attacked but swallows it down. They can work on this, or so David hopes.

 

“Or you could just tell me to get lost and I will.” he suggests and Tommy nods.

 

“I guess that might work too.”

 

Is that his dismissal? He's not sure so he hovers, taking a step back to the door, then turning to Tommy again.

 

“I just wish he would – ” Tommy starts, letting the sentence hang in the air. David reads that as an invite and sits down next to Tommy, a good measure of personal space between them. From there he can see that Tommy is clutching his phone, looking down at something but the screen is dimmed so he can't make it out what Tommy's looking at.

 

“Wish he would – what?”

 

Tommy huffs.

 

“There's no way I can end this sentence without sounding like a total dick, so let's just … not.” Tommy taps his fingers against his phone so fast they almost blur. It's one of his ticks, when he's really trying to shut up but really, really can't.

 

So David waits. Not for too long, though.

 

“It's just – one day he's all for this superhero stuff and then the next he's right where he's been for months back when – when we first quit the team.” Tommy blurts out and David nods. He doesn't know the whole story, but between the line up change and the way everyone always closes up when certain names drop, he can fill in the blanks. He's been there.

 

Tommy taps the screen of his phone and it lights up to reveal Tommy grinning at the camera, Billy's face half out of frame, scrunched up in anger, one arm wrapped around Tommy's neck, as he reached for the phone.

 

David smiles.

 

“If it's any consolation,” David starts. “I think his willingness to be a superhero has a lot to do with whether he needs to study for a test. Come his next exam, he probably will be all over it again.” David tries and he knows that it is – that Billy is – much more complicated but the rudimentary pattern is there. The guy just does not like studying.

 

Tommy smiles, David's not sure whether at the picture or at David's half-joke. Judging from the melancholic edge in his face, it's probably the first and really, David is so not qualified to make any comment on the mess that is their relationship, but he does now a thing or two about being a brother.

 

“Besides, I think a good deal of time siblings are supposed to make you miserable.” he offers. “My sister does, whenever she gets the chance, actually.” Tommy lets the phone sink and looks up at him.

 

“Had no idea you had a sister.” David shrugs.

 

“She's human, always has been. She's reckless, loud and a bit thick-headed. I don't really see her much. When she visits, things tend to happen and like I said, she's reckless.” Tommy grins and shoves his phone back in his pockets.

 

“Not easy being an older brother, huh?”

“Nope.”

 

Tommy swings his legs back over the railing and lands on the roof. “Well, brother or not, I'm not going back to this fun little gathering down there. So see – ”

 

“There's this club a friend's been telling me about.” David blurts out the words he was building up to the whole night, almost forgotten during the board game turned almost family crisis.

Tommy stops mid-turn, turning to face David.

 

“We could go there. Like a – salvage mission. Try to save the evening. I kind of feel like drinking those disgustingly green cocktails you always try to force upon me.” He knows he's blabbering but at least Tommy is not doing the half confused, half angry thing with his face so David doesn't _think_ he overstepped.

 

“Nah.” Tommy says and shrugs. “There's this Castle marathon on TV today and I was gonna watch it before Billy talked me into this. Gonna head back to that now.” David smiles and hopes it's the kind of smile people smile when they haven't been sort of rejected by the guy they have a major crush on.

 

“You can come.” Tommy says. “If you're not too set on partying, that is.”

 

David chuckles. “Fair warning: I always know who did it about ten minutes in.”

 

Tommy makes a face.

 

“The hell you do.”

  
**

 

 

Tommy is cackling as he drags David behind him, David's feet stumbling after the speedster, who is, thankfully, yet running at human speed. The city is pitch dark, lone street lights sparsely lighting up the road ahead of them.

 

They cut one corner after another and finally Tommy halts, abruptly enough for David to crash into his back. He stumbles and Tommy catches him, twirls them to keep him upright and pulls them both down onto a bench, all the while still laughing, his voice echoing through the dark street.

 

David isn't laughing. Under the burn of his aching lungs, his heart is beating against his chest and has been since before they started running. All his protests die as gasping breaths, coming out as croaks, drowned out by Tommy's laughter.

 

“You … cannot … do that!” he finally manages, still struggling to catch his breath. Tommy just laughs louder.

 

“Did you see the look on their faces?” he wheezes, clutching his stomach as he topples over. David wants to shake him until he realizes how very very not okay his earlier stunt was. Just the thought of it is enough to make him shudder again.

 

They had been peacefully walking down the street when a group of mean-looking overgrown guys not much older than themselves had started slinging insults at a passing group. Tommy whistled to draw their attention and in the blink of an eye they all wore their pants around their feet.

 

David nearly choked on his tongue.

 

On the upside, the location of their pants gave Tommy and David a head start that made it possible to escape without relying on Tommy's superspeed.

 

 

Tommy sighs. Elated and at ease with the world, he slinks down on the bench. “You were right about that club.” he says, head dangerously close to David's shoulder – which David is acutely aware of. “I had a lot of fun tonight.”

 

“You picked three fights!” David says and Tommy's laughter bubbles up again.

 

“Exactly!”

“You're impossible.” David throws his hands up and slumps against the back rest, too. Their shoulders brush and the touch sends a spark throughout David's body.

 

“It's been said before.” Tommy says through a wide grin, eyes threatening to droop shut.

 

“I'm never going out clubbing with you ever again.”

 

“Yeah, you will.” Tommy murmurs, resting his head against David's shoulder, eyes fluttering closed.

 

 _'Yeah, I will',_ David thinks, sighing a little before realizing it's probably a bad idea to fall asleep on a bench in the middle of New York after pissing off some seriously evil looking dudes. He breathes in, slowly. His breath had long since returned but he figured he could let Tommy rest for just a moment.

 

Tommy's head was heavy against his shoulder, his messy white hair brushing against the bare skin of David's neck as Tommy moves. His heart is picking up speed again, his eyes fall closed as warmth of another body seeps through his clothes, warming him against the chill night air.

 

Careful not to move too rashly he looked down to see where Tommy's hand rested against his thigh. His own fingers twitched as he thought how easy it would be to slide his fingers into Tommy's, hold his hand.

 

 _'Goddammit, Alleyne.,' h_ e thought, firmly turning his head away as a blush crept onto his cheeks. ' _What the hell do you think you're doing?'_

 

A flash of light startles him, followed by an all too familiar sound. Tommy chuckles.

 

“Tommy.” David growls as his blush deepens. He blesses his dark skin; it would hopefully cover up the blush. “Can you quit that for like one day? It's all I ask.”

 

His tone is definitely not a whine, but it's a close call. And he doesn't mind the pictures, he never did, but one day, Tommy was going to catch him making heart-eyes at him or something, and then it would all go to hell.

 

“Nope.” Tommy says, cuddling up to him. “Never. Besides, we look sooo cute.” He holds up the phone, showing him the photograph. Tommy was winking at the camera, David beside him, face caught at a weird angle, eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. The blush is mercifully invisible.

 

“You know, if you actually warned people, they could look at the camera properly and the picture might actually be something nice, something you could put to use, like stick it to your fridge or something.” he says, minutely shuffling away from Tommy, who pays no heed, keeping his head where it lies, slumping further against David as he moves. Tommy makes a disgruntled noise.

 

“I like them like that. They're better that way.” David snorts.

 

“Better than what?”

 

Tommy shrugs, his bony shoulders bumping into David's muscular ones.

 

“Other pictures, I don't know. The ones where you smile 'cause some guy says so though you'd rather punch half the people in the room.”

 

He holds the phone up, hand swaying under the increased effect of alcohol. Tommy swipes his finger over the screen, revealing one photo after another of their friends in a number of unflattering positions.

 

“See.” he says and David looks at the picture. It's a close up of America, face scrunched up in anger. “That's what pretty much everyone would look like in pictures if they weren't lying to themselves.”

 

David supposes he has a point. That makes the pictures no prettier, though.

 

The next one is of them both. David did not recall Tommy taking it, though that means nothing. The picture was horribly blurred and too brightly lit; he can barely recognize anything, but they both laugh at the camera, heads ducked closely together.

 

That one's not so bad, he thinks. Not from an aesthetic point of view, but – he doesn't know when the picture was taken or what made them laugh but looking at it he knows this is not the sort of smile you put on for a picture; it's the kind you smile when someone truly makes you happy.

 

David swallows around the lump in his throat. He looks down at Tommy who is still grinning at his phone and finds no words to say 'I wish all our pictures looked like that'.

 

“But.” Tommy says, startling David out of finishing that thought. “I will take a pretty picture so you can put it on your fridge, if that will make you happy.” Then he's climbing half onto his lap, hair brushing against David's face before Tommy leans back, pressing their cheeks against each other, holding up his phone.

 

David very much does not notice the way Tommy wiggles against his lap, instead focuses on the camera to make at least this picture less cringe-worthy than all the rest and –

 

“Are you duck-facing?” he asks.

“Uh-uh.” comes Tommy's answer, muffled through pursed lips and David laughs, just as the flash goes off.

 

 

**

 

“So.” David says.

 

“So.” Tommy echoes, leaning against the railing as the river rushes below them.

 

To be honest, David's head is still reeling from the idea that he'd asked Tommy on a date – or 'on a, well, like, uhm' as he'd eloquently put it first. The word 'date' hadn't crossed his lips until about three minutes later when Tommy already looked extremely worried David might have had a stroke.

 

Tonight had been remarkably not-different from all other times they had spend time together, apart from the first half hour in which David didn't get one sentence out – at least one that made sense.

 

But it was hard to stay nervous around Tommy for long, David thought. After he had calmed down, the evening progressed as it normally would, which was great, but not very, well, date-like. Which left David in his current situation of standing beside the Hudson and thinking of a way to bridge the gap between friends and – boyfriends? Was that too fast?

 

Was this even a good idea at all? Tommy was his friend and the one thing that made that dreadful job bearable was his presence, if David screwed this up he'd –

 

Enough. David is prepared for this. He has a list of pros and cons – pro had won by a long shot – and reasonable evidence that Tommy likes him back, in the romantic sense, the most recent piece of evidence being that he agreed to this very date.

 

So this should be easy. It should.

 

“Do you want to kiss me?” Tommy says into the awkward silence of David's overthinking. He blushes.

 

“What?” he blurts out, blinking rapidly. Tommy shrugs.

 

“It's just, you've kinda been staring at my lips for the past few minutes while looking more and more panicked. So I kinda figured you might be trying to work up, I don't know, courage or whatever.”

 

“Oh. I – ” The sentence trails off into nothing, along with David's thoughts. He knows he's not anything resembling smooth and he's never been, but he's reaching a personal low here. His mouth is incredibly dry and fuck, Tommy is right, he's still staring at Tommy's lips, currently curled in a smirk. He should probably look somewhere else.

 

Eyes? Eyes are good.

 

David looks up into Tommy's eyes, which are bright and sparkling with amusement. He wonders if this date would be totally ruined if he just pulled a Tommy, just turned on his heels and ran.

 

“Well, anyhow.” Tommy says. “If you did want to kiss me, I'd be totally on board with that.”

 

David acknowledges this revelation with a nod and turns away to look at the city lights dancing over the water. The only sound breaking their silence is Tommy shuffling his feet, tapping his fingers against the railing in front of them. David's heart jumps as he realizes _Tommy_ might pull a Tommy and leave him standing here.

 

David takes a deep breath.

 

“So tonight was fun.” he says, mentally flogging himself for saying something that dull. Tommy snorts.

 

“'Course it was. I'm a joy to be around.” David chuckles, despite still feeling like running was the smart option here.

 

“Keep telling me that, I'll believe it eventually.” he says and Tommy makes a face at him.

 

“Oh yeah, Mr. Life-of-the-party? You wouldn't know fun if I hit you in the face with it.”

 

“Well, _maybe_ my idea of fun just involves less insulting people and drawing mustaches.”

 

“Exactly what I meant! Mustache-drawing is the epitome of humor, you're just too caught up in political cabaret and puns involving chemistry to get it.”

 

They laugh and David feels the tension in his shoulders dissipate. He turns to face Tommy again.

 

“Tonight was fun.” he repeats, voice firm this time, and Tommy rolls his eyes.

 

“So you keep telling me.”

 

“Well, I'd like to do it again.”

 

“Then we should, probably.” Tommy says, grinning.

 

“We should, definitely.” David says, reaching for Tommy's hand still drumming against the metal railing.

 

It's easy once he's started the motion, David finds as he slides their hands together.

 

They intertwine their fingers and turn to face each other. Tommy stopped grinning, the smile curling around his lips is happy. David tilts his head and leans forward, Tommy's bangs brushing his forehead as Tommy's eyes flutter and close.

 

David kisses him. The first brush of their lips is electric, momentary.

 

Then they both tilt their heads, dry lips brushing past each other, as their fingers tighten their hold and – the flash is blinding, even through closed eyes.

 

“Tommy.” David growls as he blinks through the stars dancing in front of his eyes. Tommy laughs, burying his face in David's neck.

 

 _I don't care how that one looks,_ David thinks. _That one's going on my fridge._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't seem to stop writing about these idiots, I'm almost sorry. Eh, anyway, what do you think? There's some more stuff on my [tumblr](http://cptcarol.tumblr.com/), if you like it.


End file.
